Unlocking the secrets of Nordic Innovation

In the Hot Seat

Strong safety nets and early-age encouragement build fearless innovators. Love Dager and Lana Brandorne of Stockholm Fintech jump in the hot seat to talk about where Nordic innovation is today and where it is going. Fintech isn’t dead! Long live fintech!

Key Takeaways.

• [0:0] Denise Johansson puts Love Dager, CEO and co-founder of Stockholm Fintech, and Lana Brandorne co-founder of Stockholm Fintech, in the hot seat.
• [3:37] Nordic tech is hot! Lana and Love talk about why that is and the factors that drive innovation from the north.
• [6:06] The world looks to Nordic countries for innovation, but some legacy systems have to catch up.
• [8:55] Embedded everything! Denise, Love, and Lana discuss hot trends.
• [11:01] Flat hierarchies, sandboxing, and sibling-like relationships between Nordic countries drive healthy collaboration and competition in the fintech ecosystem.
• [14:52] Want to replicate Nordic success? Move your startup to the Nordics!
• [18:49] Long live Fintech! Lana and Love talk about upcoming movements in fintech and why it’s just getting started, from better investment opportunities to available talent.
• [22:57] Love and Lana discuss what to watch for in the coming years, from embedded, B2B, AI — with less hype! to increased demand in cyber-security.
• [24:27] The AI revolution may have been over-hyped in terms of immediate impact, Love and Lana share examples of how it’s making a difference today.
• [28:02] Lana and Love share their closing thoughts on Nordic innovation in these challenging times.
• [29:06] Denise signs out until the next time she puts an industry leader in the hot seat.

People.

• Guest Love Dager, CEO and co-founder of Stockholm Fintech, co-founder and COO of Hack for Earth, and founder of Outside Minds, driving innovation and creativity using modern methodology.
• Guest Lana Brandorne formerly at Mastercard, co-founder of Stockholm Fintech, advancing the fintech landscape through community collaboration, and knowledge sharing.
• Host Denise Johansson, co-CEO and co-Founder of Enfuce, a female-founded fintech helping drive business growth, solve customer challenges, and extend financial inclusion.

Links.

• Stockholm Fintech
• Hack for Earth
• Outside Minds
• Enfuce

Guest Quotes (edited).

• “Embedded everything” is a mega trend we've seen for a couple of years, but it's definitely ramping up. — Love Dager, Stockholm Fintech, Hack for Earth, Outside Minds, InTheHotSeat
• A shared sameness makes us good at collaborating in Nordic countries, we are like siblings who want to be the best. It creates an ecosystem of friendly players competing to create innovation and synergies. — Love Dager, Stockholm Fintech, Hack for Earth, Outside Minds, InTheHotSeat
• Nordic innovation comes from a combination of having the potential to go big and go global, but testing it out in our safe backyard. — Love Dager, Stockholm Fintech, Hack for Earth, Outside Minds, InTheHotSeat
• It's not a bad time for all fintechs. There are a lot of quality investments being done: more quality over quantity. If you have a good fintech and you have products and customers, it's not that hard to raise money. — Love Dager, Stockholm Fintech, Hack for Earth, Outside Minds, InTheHotSeat
• For many startups, it's about pushing through these hard times. So maybe look into alternative financing if you're running low on cash and use AI tools to try to be more efficient. — Love Dager, Stockholm Fintech, Hack for Earth, Outside Minds, InTheHotSeat
• We are very digital in Nordic countries. It's such a natural thing to build companies, we even ask our teenagers to start companies, to think about solutions. And we have the safety net to do so. — Lana Brandorne, Stockholm Fintech, InTheHotSeat
• Hierarchies here are flat. Any idea is welcome, whether it is your first day at an entry-level job, if you have a good idea senior management often listens and it fosters a lot of innovation. — Lana Brandorne, Stockholm Fintech, InTheHotSeat
• As someone coming into the Nordic market, you need to be aware that your reputation will precede you. You do not have room for mistakes in this market because people will remember. — Lana Brandorne, Stockholm Fintech, InTheHotSeat
• Fintech is definitely not dead. The people who don't truly understand the space are exiting it because there's no longer hype, but it’s far from dead. If anything, we're in many areas just getting started. — Lana Brandorne, Stockholm Fintech, InTheHotSeat

Denise Quotes (edited).

• Globally, they see us as the Nordic countries, we are bundled in together. But then when you are in the Nordics, then we are Swedes, we are Finns, we are Danes. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• Since day one at Enfuce that we have had the zero asshole policy. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• You can't fail. Everything won't necessarily become a success, but you will always learn from everything you do in life. If you calculate risk and start being afraid of what might happen you will never move forward. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat
• As the CEO of a flat organisation it's a huge relief to feel that trust from the employees, and I can trust that innovation, ideas, and improvements will make their way to me. — Denise Johansson, InTheHotSeat